


Yellow

by jrench



Category: Smosh
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-06-01 08:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15138677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jrench/pseuds/jrench
Summary: For all the things you say in the lilting accent of youth.(AU- Shayne never leaves Virginia, ends up going to UVa, meets Damien from out of state. College AU.)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is the prologue to what I hope to be a long-form piece I write throughout my own senior year at school. If you ever wondered what it was like to go to school in Virginia, you're about to find out. Many thanks go out to @missmeparadox for being an excellent contributor of ideas and an excellent motivator.

Virginia summers were never kind, at least not to Shayne. But sitting in a terminal for a train that was almost an hour late, he began the process of missing them. He looked up from the book he had in his lap and out of the terminal window, letting his gaze soften to take in the midday landscape of the train terminal. Both directions eventually curve out into the tree line, but he focused on the grey gravel that the charcoal-black train tracks were built atop and focused further to see the heat waves coming up from the ground. Shayne imagined the story he’d tell about Virginia summers- how the asphalt would look liquid, how storms would be fast and deadly, drowning a town in 30 minutes and leaving them in a drought for a month.

He thought about storytellers. The book in his hand was _Big Fish_ , by Daniel Wallace. He’d seen the movie with Damien in their first year of college because it was one of Damien’s favorites, and ended up in a pile of tears at the end. Shayne thumbed page 18 in his hand as he tried to turn his focus back to the book. He couldn’t keep his mind on the book. His thoughts kept wandering away, and a part of him believed it was because he was saving the book for some special moment. 

Shayne always took books too seriously. The summer before his senior year of high school, Shayne put himself on a book regimen, since he didn’t have a car and liked spending most of his time alone. He ended up biking in the heat of the day into town- or onto someone else’s property- and read underneath a tree, or outside of the bowling alley & Food Lion parking lot. He would sling his backpack over his shoulder and pretend he was nobody. It was difficult to seek out adventures in a small town, in a world that didn’t want any more adventurers, because most important, practical things had (for the most part) been found. It was hard to be freshly 18 years old and realize that you hadn’t had as many adventures as you thought you would. He hadn’t known that he had any thoughts about being young until he wasn’t quite as young anymore.

So here was the part of him that wanted a different, glorious youth. The part that was afraid of living any kind of dispassionate life, but was afraid of making any decision to go headfirst into anything he wanted to do. He was about to turn 21 years old. The thing about dread, he thought, was that if it sat with you for long enough you became complacent with it. It was like he was stuck on a train track, and his whole life he knew that he would have to move in one direction or another. So he took time to not make up his mind. Over time, some of the paths got blocked. When he was 18 the train was half a mile away. Looking up now, it was something like 100 yards.

All of this and more was spinning through his head, while his body sat waiting for a train in a crowded terminal, holding a book about a storyteller. At least it was an air-conditioned terminal.

Shayne was suddenly shocked out of his own head by loud music.

Across the room, a woman holds up a cell phone between herself and another woman holding a child. They both lean in intently, tuning their ear to the music despite the song being loud enough for Shayne to hear across the room. Without any sense of discomfort, the women sat through at least half a minute of the song, although it was the only thing breaking the silence of the terminal filled with absolute strangers. Beside him, an overweight family whispered into each other’s ears and shot the women a dirty look. He wished he hadn’t noticed that the family was overweight. Those were the kinds of mindless things he thought without thinking. Shayne tried to ignore both groups, deciding that the music, although an odd break in the quiet social dynamic of the group of strangers, was neutral to him.

He turned his attention back to his book and more time passed. The strangers in the terminal settled into the comfort of silently watching each other, whispering to their traveling group if they had one. Shayne stared at page 18 without taking much in.

Two women who had sat across from one another for an hour without acknowledging each other were suddenly involved in a conversation. The woman with a black handbag had noticed the dog.

“Pardon,” she started, leaning in to ensure eye contact and reaching out her hand, “What kind of dog is that?”

The other woman had on a white shirt, and her eyes shuffled uncomfortably from the stranger’s to her dog. “Oh, he’s a mixed lab.”

“Is he a service dog?”

Shayne tuned the rest of the conversation out. Or he forgot it. He was focused on how odd he must have looked to this group of strangers, with two full bags packed, along with his carry-on, wearing long sleeves and jeans in the summertime. He was too young and ill-dressed to be traveling business. If anyone gave him a second look, they might have thought he as a runaway. 

He liked feeling invisible.


	2. Back in Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 277 days until graduation

Rock music was the only thing palatable to Shayne in the heat. The guitar riffs of Nirvana’s _Poly_ ride alongside him as the Virginia countryside goes by. The shifting of the train unsettles him. Lost again, in thought.

 

 

It’s the morning when he rolls into Charlottesville. The Amtrak station has scattered people waiting for other travelers in the heat. Shayne scans the crowd to find Courtney- tall, blond, and unmistakable – and grabs his things to leave.

“We have now arrived Charlottesville Amtrak station,” the attendant spoke over the intercom, “Please exit near the café cart,”

Shayne sprang up from his seat and maneuvered his bags through a couple of cars before springing out of the train and out into the summer heat. He bet he had 5 minutes until he began to sweat through his denim combo- jeans and a denim jacket with a white t-shirt underneath. _Bad move_ , he thought.

“Hellooo there, sweet boy!” he heard Courtney say. Looking up, he saw Courtney walking over to him, hips sauntering in an ankle-length sundress and crop-top and her long fingers removing her aviators- the very image of California girl. He let out a breathy laugh before moving to hug her.

“Hey yourself, it’s been a while,” he heard himself say.

“The boy is back in town!” Courtney threw her hands up in the air, “You won’t believe what we’ve done with the place.” She turned and began to leave, taking one of Shayne’s bags with her.

“Are you and Noah all moved in?” Shayne asked, catching up to her, “I’m sorry I’m so late, but-“

“But work, we understand. Noah and I have been ‘moving in’ for almost two weeks now.”

“I skimmed some of those emails he sent the landlord, is the house in good shape?”

“Nothing we can’t figure out,” She turned and smiled at him, “Enough with that, how was work?”

Shayne had spent the summer working at a kids’ camp, teaching 5th and 6th graders history. Shayne didn’t know much about history himself, but he was able to answer enough of the kids’ questions, and he ended up enjoying the experience. He thought he was pretty good with kids.

“It was great,” he said, “I had never worked with gifted kids before, and they gave me a new challenge.”

“So, when should I expect to see Parenting magazine on our countertop?” Courtney asked, making fun. It was a running gag in their friend group to joke about Shayne’s obsession with preparing to be a father.

“God, just give me a couple weeks to get a new subscription.” Shayne replied, mock-exhausted. 

“Is this seriously all you own, dude?”

Shayne shrugged, “I don’t really like owning stuff.”

“Yeah but these suitcases weight a ton, are they full of rocks?”

“Books.”

“Shoulda guessed. No furniture, barely any clothes. Just books.”

Shayne laughed. “My dad is bringing my bike and a bookcase the next time he comes to town.”

“You have a car now, right? Not that I don’t love driving you around, but we’re not near school anymore.”

“Yeah, he’s bringing the truck down too.”

They were close to Courtney’s blue Subaru. Shayne finally felt like he was done travelling. Leaving town for a whole summer had taken a toll on him. When Noah and Courtney had approached him in the spring about moving in with them, Shayne was ecstatic. Courtney and Noah have been living with each other forever, they were the perfect roommates. Shayne thought he was the luckiest man alive, being recruited into their home.

“A truck?” Courtney laughed, dumping his things in the trunk, “You’re the image of a Southern boy now, kiddo,”

Courtney opened her door and hopped in, starting the car. Shayne tried the door, but it was locked. He waited.

“Oh, you want in the car?” she asked, smiling. Shayne hopped in, taking in the smell of her car, hot from sitting in the heat. He could feel the sweat beginning to bead on his forehead.

“It’s a bad joke,” Courtney said as she shifted into reverse, “But I love it too much to stop,”

Shayne watched the small Virginia town as she pulled out onto Main Street. He had missed the quiet business of the town. The (admittedly gentrified) fusion restaurants down the street from classic bagel shops. For the most part the town was empty of the college kids, the way they liked it. Although being college kids themselves, they disliked the presence of the college in the town, imposing a culture on the rest of the town.

Shayne shifted sunglasses out of his backpack onto his face as Courtney turned on some music and rolled the windows down. The way to their new house, through the town and onto the highway, felt familiar, and he found himself falling in love with it all over again. The grass greener than he remembered, the girl beside him more beautiful than she was when he left. He felt at ease. He took out his phone and took a Snapchat video to record the moment- and through the screen he saw the trees rush by and the music running with them. He captioned it ‘ease’.

Courtney turned to him when he put away his phone. 

“’Ease’?” she asked.

Shayne nodded back. He had made it a habit to record moments when he felt completely calm. He thought it would be a nice break for people scrolling social media to see a calm moment from someone else’s perspective. Some friends had even taken up the habit himself, and he had gotten a lot of snaps of friends sitting on sofas with their families at Christmas, or of dim-lit rooms with tea cups. 

He appreciated that they were taking it into their own lives, but Shayne enjoyed the more common moments of calm. The moments waiting for a friend in the car running errands or sitting around the house during “study nights” doing nothing but listening to music and silently being in each other’s company.

“How’s work going?” He asked. Courtney had begun working at a coffee shop downtown, Mudhouse, earlier that summer.

“Eh. It’s temporary. I’ll survive.”

“Are you looking for something else?”

“Yeah, Sunny is gonna put in a good word for me with his boss before he leaves.”

“Sunny does marketing, right?” Sunny was a close friend of theirs, who had graduated a few years ago and was only just about to leave town to go to graduate school.

“Yep. Hopefully I can keep working morning shifts,” She crossed her fingers and bit her lip for emphasis.

“What about Noah, how’s he doing?” Shayne did this often. He and Noah were good friends, but Courtney and Noah were still much closer than the two boys. He hoped living together would change that.

“He’s doing fine, his work just finished working with Hopkins, so he has a lot of work to do on the next project this week and the beginning of the week after.”

“I’m psyched to see him, it’s been a while,” Shayne replied. 

Noah had graduated much earlier than they had despite being their age with a degree as a computer science engineer. He immediately took up work in town and he and Courtney moved in together. All that had happened before Shayne started school, so he didn’t know much about that time in their lives. Noah and their friend Keith had lived together before they had graduated, but they decided that they didn’t work very well at being roommates.

Keith moved in with some girls the group met working at the local inn’s café, Monica and Sarah. Sarah had been Keith and Monica’s supervisor at the inn and was as open about being gay as she could have been with the homophobic owners. Shayne wasn’t around when all of it happened, but from what he could gather, after a few months, Monica realized that she was in love with Sarah and ended up coming out to her. They started dating, but their bosses found out and Sarah got fired. Monica left with her, but Keith had to stay working there because he needed the money. It was something he didn’t like talking about, so it was an unspoken rule to never bring up work around the girls.

Shayne was around for the story’s happier moments- less than a year ago, Monica had set up a surprise scavenger hunt for Sarah, requiring the whole group’s help for giving out hints. It took a whole day to complete, and at the end, Monica proposed. The wedding is planned for the early summer of 2019, and the girls are already busy with planning. Shayne was happy he was a part of a group that brought people together and was very grateful for the love that they shared.

Shayne’s own love life was tumultuous- the group had gotten pretty angry at him for his previous boyfriend, an exchange student he shared a building with last year. The guy demanded all of Shayne’s time, and it turned out that he had a boyfriend back home that he was using Shayne to cheat on. The year before, Shayne dated a freshman who wasn’t sure of his sexuality and ended up breaking up with him to date a girl they knew who wasn’t kind to Shayne. They hadn’t spoken since. Needless to say, he had a pretty bad track record. All of that on top of Shayne numerous one night stands had him in a pretty odd place relationship-wise, and he really wasn’t sure what he was looking for anymore.

The problem with Shayne was that he fell in love hard and easily- an unlucky combination. He had gone over this with Damien a couple of times, but the two of them were a whole other story.


	3. No Bedtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1363 days until graduation

Shayne and Damien had met their first year of school. The University of Virginia was a pretty big school, with enough students to fill a small town (like Shayne’s hometown, a 45-minute drive from school). First years were required to live in the residence halls on-campus, supposedly to help with the transition to living away from home. The cool thing was that there were a couple of different options.

New Dorms and Old Dorms were the most popular options. New Dorms were like fashionable hotels, but huge and full of strangers. Old Dorms was equally huge and full of strangers but didn’t have air conditioning since it was last updated in the ‘70’s (hence the name). 

The drawback for both Dorms were that they only housed first-years. Shayne remembered sitting in his living room on his laptop, deciding where he wanted to live for his first year of school. Shayne didn’t want to live around a bunch of kids who didn’t know what they were doing. 

All of the other options were lumped together, called Residential Colleges. There were some for specific language students, one with a focus on sustainable living, but Shayne was most interested in the last Residential College- Brown. The Housing page gave a link to Brown’s website, so Shayne clicked on that and scrolled through it. It was by far the most established, being the first Residential College at the University. Shayne was excited at all of the cool things Brown did for its Residents, and that upperclassmen made up the majority of the residents, meaning Shayne would have people to go to with questions who could give him advice. Shayne applied right away.

Brown is where Shayne met Damien. The weekend before school was the most exciting, adrenaline-filled weekend of Shayne’s life, coming from a small town where nothing really happened. Upperclassmen helped him move into his new room, and he met his roommate (Zach? Mike? Less than four years later and Shayne can’t remember). Someone told him that night there would be some kind of team scavenger hunt to help the first-years figure out where everything was located around the (surprisingly large) campus. Dressed in his running shoes and some shorts, Shayne felt displaced.

Shayne arrived on the quad outside the building to a mass of students milling around. He looked around at the different clumps of students talking. He’d been having trouble figuring out who was new and who wasn’t. He knew he must have looked like a first-year. He was awkward and alone. He couldn’t even begin to start a conversation. He was sweating through his shirt on a hot August night and knowing that people would see him sweat made him sweat even more.

Suddenly, a hand came down on his shoulder- Shayne jumped and turned around to face some dark, smiling eyes.

“Hey man, you’re looking a little lost,” he said, whoever it was with the perfect hair and the perfect… _you’re staring, stop it_.

“Yeah, honestly, I am,” Shayne said with a strained laugh.

“Well get ready, I think this is about to start,” Dark Eyes stayed beside him and turned his attention towards a few students standing up on a picnic table. Shayne did as well, but kept the guy in his peripheral vision, straining his focus on anything but the light brown hair.

“Welcome to Scav Hunt!” _orange hair, Jesus,_ “What we’re about to do should NOT be undertaken by the faint of heart.”

Shayne noticed some of the students rolling their eyes. He smiled to himself. These guys must be the troublemakers. He was interested.

“I’m Lasercorn, one of your Liaisons for the school year. This is Sohinki,” he gestured left to a bearded guy with his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, “And Mari,” he gestured right a girl in overalls with two long French braids coming down in front of both of her shoulders. She spoke up.

“Our whole job,” she began, “Is to make sure all the new students have the time of their life and an easy transition into college. But tonight…” She trailed off smiling.

“We’re here to party and have a good time!” Sohinki threw his fist into the air and the students all did the same, giving a cheer.

“New students,” Lasercorn waited until the group was quiet, “All you need to know is that you’re about to find out some of the University’s secrets from the very best,” the crowd cheered, “Everyone else- you know what to do. So let’s break up into groups, and the Scav Hunt leaders will explain things from there.”

The three Liaisons hopped off the picnic table and went separate ways, and suddenly the whole quad broke into action. Pairs of what Shayne guessed were upperclassmen jumped on top of rails, picnic tables, and chairs on the quad and started calling out for people to join their teams. As the students all began to break up to form around these team leaders, the guy next to Shayne started moving to the other end of the quad.

Shayne didn’t wait a single second before following behind him. While not technically a friend, the guy couldn’t be counted as a stranger anymore. The guy threaded through the groups until Shayne realized he was headed toward Lasercorn, who was talking to his partner, a skinny, tall girl with a red streak in her hair. He already had a sizeable group around him

“Hey what’s up,” the guy said, confidently waving with one hand before putting both on his hips.

“First years!” Lasercorn shouted, his eyes widening further than Shayne thought was strictly necessary, “Welcome to the best team.”

“Definitely the try-hard team, I don’t know about best,” his friend said, “I’m Pam- hope you guys are ready to run for two hours straight.”

“We’re gonna crush the others,” Lasercorn said, pounding his fist into his palm.

Lasercorn’s energy was contagious and Shayne found himself jittery with excitement, enough to break out of his comfort zone.

“What exactly are we doing?” he heard himself ask. Damien turned around to him and smiled. For a second they made eye contact, but Shayne kept his face straight and flicked his eyes back to Lasercorn. _Shit, I should’ve smiled back. Fuck._

Pam laughed as Lasercorn addressed the group as a whole, “Scav Hunt is a race to complete as many tasks as possible at checkpoints around the University and the local area. We’ll be taking pictures and videos at each checkpoint to prove we really found it, and the team to get the most points wins! The Liaisons will tally the points later tonight.”

“How do you get to keep score if you’re leading a team?” a blond girl spoke up. Pam laughed again.

“Sohinki is gonna be keeping score,” she responded, “He doesn’t like running around and sweating.”

“Oh,” Pam’s eyes lit up as she remembered, “I don’t know your names!”

Quickly, they went around the circle and recited their names and years. Shayne was surprised at the number of returning students that were playing. Pam and Lasercorn were third-years, and their friend Josh was a second year. Josh’s girlfriend Kate wasn’t actually in Brown but she had heard it was a fun time. The first years made up the rest of the team: Courtney (the blond girl from earlier), Courtney’s roommate- a short girl with big boots who called herself Boze, himself, and the guy next to him… _Damien._

Lasercorn checked the time on his phone.

“Okay, we start in less than a minute and we have exactly 2 hours to complete the list,” he locked eyes with Shayne, “Try to keep up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone wants to get in touch with me about the fic, hit me up! jmf9ce@virginia.edu


	4. Gusburgers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1363 days until graduation

The eight of them were having an absolute blast. Shayne was drenched in sweat from running all around Grounds (capital G because apparently, that’s what students here call the campus), getting a look at where he’d be spending the next four years.

Already every member of the team had done something to earn the team points. They packed Boze into one of the washers in the laundry room, Courtney and Lasercorn 69’d the statue of Thomas Jefferson in the courtyard, and Pam dunked her head into the (apparently filthy) duck pond. Shayne ended up having a dance off with Josh- _Joven. He wants to be called Joven_ -in the middle of the silent floor of the library. He also watched as Kate and Damien pretended to be zombies when they snuck into the cemetery next to Dorms.

Currently, they were going slightly beyond Grounds to a greasy burger joint called The White Spot, apparently so that the new kids could experience something called a Gusburger. And Boze was not having it. When the group slowed their pace to a brisk walk, she spoke up.

“What in the _Sam hell_ is a Gusburger?” Boze asked (kinda yelled). Shayne decided Boze was awesome.

“It’s like,” Lasercorn turned around to walk backward on the busy brick sidewalk lit with orange street lamps and fluorescent light coming out of the CVS they were passing, “It’s like if someone asked you what the epitome of drunk-food was, and then asked you to add an egg on top.”

Boze’s face broke into a humorous shock, “Y’all are really doing the most down here, and honestly I think I might be here for it?” Damien laughed, big and boisterous. 

Lasercorn smiled and wiggled his eyebrows, “The mostiest.”

Promptly, he turned and swung open the door to his right, leaving the rest of the group to laugh and follow after him.

Once inside, Shayne took a moment to look around the place, taking in all of the photos on the wall. They all featured one guy, presumably the owner, posing with different groups of people. Some of the pictures were really old- and they were all over the store, save for a giant mirror on one wall, which Shayne assumed was some way of making the hole-in-a-wall burger joint more “open”.

Shayne’s eyes caught on brown ones in the mirror. His hair sticking to his forehead with sweat, and his chest still rising and falling with breath, Damien smiled at Shayne. He came up behind Shayne and leaned on the wall to rest.

“Hey man, having fun?” 

Damien was breathless. Shayne could feel where anxiety usually sits. In his in his hands, where he would often fidget his index finger against his thumb in comfort, he was still. Where his elbows would normally lock, he was loose. His own breaths were controlled. He felt like it was the night of his life. He smiled back.

“This is not what I expected my first night of college to be like.” He turned and leaned his shoulder on the wall to face Damien.

“Shayne, right?”

“Yeah. Damien?”

“Yep!” Damien reached out to shake Shayne’s hand. Shayne raised his eyebrow but took it and shook.

“Is this an interview?” Shayne was smiling, “I don’t think this is my business casual.”

Damien laughed, clapping his hands and tossing his head back. _Big. Boisterous. Gosh._ Shayne looked around the room in embarrassment, hoping no one was looking at them. He locked eyes with Courtney, who smiled and turned back to the rest of the group, who were ordering from the cashier.

“Yeah exactly- It’s never too early to network, you know.”

“Gosh, you sound like a guidance counselor”

“Woah, we’re out of high school now, man! We can just go to regular old therapists now. Or maybe check out Student Health?” Damien raised his eyebrows, and Shayne could feel him trying to open up for him to joke. He went for it.

“I dunno, I can barely make it to the bathroom from my room, I might have to Google-Maps it…” 

“You’re hilarious! Where have you been hiding that? I feel like I haven’t heard a word from you all night.”

Shayne felt a smile stuck on his face as he laughed. He hoped it didn’t look stupid. Maybe his mouth was too far open? He started thinking about closing it. He hoped his breath didn’t smell. _Or my sweat. Oh, man._ His eyes darted down to Damien’s mouth. His smile was perfect. Shayne bet he looked like an idiot.

Damien opened his mouth and leaned further in to Shayne, but before he could he was cut off.

“Hey boys,” Boze said, clapping her hands together and pointing them towards the boys, “Lasercorn just ordered a crazy-ass burger and y’all gotta see this.”

She turned and walked away. Shayne, glad for the distraction from his sudden angst, followed her.

“Oh- Hot Lord,” he heard Damien whisper behind him, “ _That’s_ a Gusburger?” He gestured over with wide eyes at the burger served on a paper plate.

“Listen, young ones,” Lasercorn began, “What you are about to eat is _divine_.” His teeth cut every word.

He paused for effect, gesturing his hands like some kind of fortune-teller and Shayne swears he hasn’t blinked since Shayne met him.

“It is the hallmark of a wild night. For the small price of $4.55, you may partake in the greasy goodness of… the Gusburger.” He raised the paper plate like an offering bowl.

“It looks like a soaked rag,” Boze said.

“A _deliciously_ soaked rag,”

“Lemme take a bite,” Boze tilted her head up, as if acknowledging the sandwich as a foe.

Lasercorn shielded the Gusburger with his body, hissing at Boze, but that didn’t stop her. Shayne watched as she leaped onto Lasercorn’s back, and kept watching as she tried to grab the sandwich off of the plate while he twisted desperately to get her off.

Shayne’s eyes darted to Damien’s face with nervous energy, _are we going to get thrown out?_ but Damien is caught up in the wrestling match, and he was actually giggling with glee. Shayne stopped for a second and took in all of Damien- his large arms and the way he sounded when he laughed.

Shayne turned back to Boze and Lasercorn and started taunting.

“Hey Lasercorn, are you really gonna let a first year beat you up on her first night?”

Lasercorn’s evil eyes snapped back at Shayne, “I can’t hit a girl, dude!”

“Put ‘em up, coward!” Boze shouted, “I’m the boss here now!”

“Eyy,” Pam said, “In this corner, we have heavyweight champ, Little Boss Boze Bozington!” 

“That’s BIG BOSS BOZE to y’all peasants!” Boze was laughing, and Lasercorn had stopped fighting back, so she snatched the burger and took a huge bite.

“Victory!” she shouted around the food in her mouth, fist held high.

The whole group cheered.

Eventually she got down and shared the burger with the rest of the group. Shayne thought it tasted like the fattiest, greasiest, least healthy thing he’d ever eaten. As he looked around the circle at the group of practical strangers, all sweaty from running around on a pointless scavenger hunt, he thought he wouldn’t have it any other way.


	5. Candor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 245 days until graduation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out this fic will include backstory from "This Is the Last Time", my first fic. Give that a read before this chapter if you want some backstory (from Damien's perspective).

Shayne ambled towards the kitchen sleepily. He was shivering in the morning cold of the house, wearing old flannel pajama pants and a white V-neck. He rinsed out the coffee pot and emptied the old grounds from this same ritual the previous day and filled up the machine with enough coffee for the house. He knew Courtney wouldn’t be awake until it was almost time to leave, so he checked the clock on the microwave. _7:43. I’ve got over an hour._ Shayne listened for a second to the bubbling of the coffee maker and took a look around his kitchen in the grey morning light before flicking on the switch and grabbing his laptop from his room for some music.

He spent that time with himself.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Oh good morning,” Courtney said, walking downstairs in a light blue robe, “I see you’ve already made coffee? Genius. Thank you.”

She walked to the cabinet, pulled out the biggest coffee mug Shayne had ever seen, and proceeded to fill it with mostly coffee and a bit of milk. Shayne, sitting on the countertop on his laptop, scrolling social media, turned down his music.

“What time is Damien coming over?” She asked, rubbing her eyes.

“9:30. We’ve got to leave early if we’re gonna beat the rain.”

“I hate to do this so late, but I won’t be able to go with you guys. They called me in for a shift around noon and there’s no way you guys will be back in time.”

Shayne shrugged. “That’s fine.”

Courtney raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure? I thought you wanted me there as a buffer?”

“Not really. I was just overthinking it, I think we’ll be fine.”

“I think it’s great you guys are finally hanging out again, but don’t push it too hard, okay?” She sat down at the kitchen table and gave Shayne a _look_.

“We were friends first, we can be friends again.” 

Shayne was surprised to hear the frustration in his voice. He thought he would be able to have these conversations, but apparently not.

“Shayne I love you, but what you did wasn’t right. Damien didn’t deserve to be treated that way.”

Shayne was silent. He could hear himself let out a breath.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Courtney began, softer this time, “It’s none of my business, I shouldn’t have said th-“

“No,” _I can do this_ , “Thank you. You’re a good friend, and I needed to hear it. I knew it was wrong when I did it… I just feel like I wasted his time for so long.”

They stayed silent for a little while, Courtney at the table and Shayne on the countertop, pretending to scroll. Shayne thinks back to this spring, the night before he left for home. Damien drove over to his apartment in the middle of the night because Shayne was drunk and alone and needed him. He thought about how he’d been cheating on his ex-boyfriend with Damien for the majority of the last year. How everyone knew about it but no one was going to tell him to stop.

“I don’t know how to apologize,” He said, breaking into the silence of the room, “It’s been him the whole time. I just messed up.”

Courtney put down her mug and walked over to him, moving his laptop so she could hug him. He rested his head on her shoulder and breathed.

“You’ll do it,” She whispered, “You’ve been home for a month and you all barely talked over the summer. That’s enough time.”

Shayne sure hoped so.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“I thought you said you bought a truck?”

“I did, it’s got a bed you can lay flat in the back,”

“That’s not a truck, that’s an SUV. Trust me, I’m from Georgia,” Damien said, “Trucks are kind of a big deal down there,”

Shayne laughed, “It’s big and it carries whatever I need it to, so it’s a truck to me.”

Shayne stuck his key into the driver’s side door and twisted it a couple of times before it opened, and then he used the switch on the inside to open Damien’s door.

“Manual doors?” Damien had a smile in his voice, “Do we have to petal with our feet like the Flintstones?” He hopped in the car, “I’m down, but you could have told me so I brought better shoes.”

“You can’t equip running shoes yet, you haven’t beaten the first gym,” Shayne put on an old-man voice, “There’s a time and place for everything, Damien, but not now!”

“OH my gosh, that was only the first game!” He shouted, “Until the remake where they had the _audacity_ to make us do it _again_ ,”

Shayne started the car and pulled out onto the road.

“Not to mention,” he went on, “That it never really satisfied my nostalgia bone,”

“What do you mean?” Shayne asked.

“Well it’s kinda like…” Damien began, “I almost wanted the graphics to be _worse_ , you know?” Shayne saw out of the corner of his eye Damien turn to face him, “I wanted the badly colored 8-bit style, and the remake made it seem like a completely new world. It wasn’t the Pallet Town I was used to.”

Shayne nodded. “I see what you mean,”

Damien nodded with him, “Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda like how different this year is than our first year here. It’s still college, but now Charlottesville feels so much smaller. It’s not new, and we know so much more of it.” He paused. “It’s a completely new world.”

The highway passed by them and they sat in silence for a while. The grey light of the cloudy day foreshadowed heavy rain. In the back of Shayne’s mind, he hoped it wouldn’t so they didn’t get soaked. For the most part though, Shayne didn’t let any thoughts pass through his mind. He let himself just be in the car with Damien.

“You’re really smart,” Damien said. And then, “Red light,”

Shayne shook himself out of the moment to step on the breaks a little too quickly. The two boys lurched forward in their seats and Shayne refocused on the road.

After a minute Shayne realized how quiet the car had become and felt self-conscious. _Should I have put on music?_ But in the corner of his eye, he noticed Damien, half-asleep with his eyes closed, the trees blurring by behind his head, his head resting on the back of the seat, and Shayne decided he liked the quiet after all.

“I’m sorry,” He said, surprising himself, “About everything,”

Shayne left it in the air. His eyes on the road, he could feel Damien open his eyes, and make a small movement to turn his head to Shayne. Neither of them moved or spoke.

Oddly comfortable, the quiet stayed until they turned off onto a dirt road. Damien’s mouth parted slightly and suddenly he had Shayne’s full attention. It closed again and opened a few more times. Shayne kept his eyes on the road. He could feel Damien trying to memorize his face, trying to remember this moment.

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you all so much for your support in writing this, your kind comments are what motivates me to put time into this. Thank you!


	6. Yellow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1363 days until graduation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some gosh darn lovin'. I made a playlist of songs that I listened to writing this- check it out!
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5CrYP6U52i4fqEXJVTw9rD

Shayne went onto the street behind the rest of the group, and he appreciated the smell of the night air. The White Spot smelled like grease and it made Shayne queasy. Boze and Lasercorn were at the front of the group, Boze kind of hop-skipping to keep up. Josh – Joven- was holding hands with Kate behind them, but the way he kept rushing forward to shout at Lasercorn made it obvious that they were all together. Kate was laughing along with them, and beside her, Courtney and Pam were talking about what Courtney should expect for her first week of school. Damien was behind the rest of the group, hands in his pockets. As they turned to go back up to school, Shayne rushed forward, suddenly feeling a burst of energy telling him to go for it- and he patted Damien’s arm.

“Hey,” _Genius. Original._ “Having fun?”

Damien shot Shayne the biggest, toothiest smile he’d ever seen. “This is a total blast! It’s so different than I expected. I was worried everyone would just be drinking and doing dumb stuff.”

Shayne was on fire. “You wouldn’t call this dumb stuff?”

“Ha! Fair enough. At least this dumb stuff is fun,” Damien turned, shaking his hands as if apologizing, “If you’re into drinking, that’s cool, sorry I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No, you’re all good,” Shayne said, “I haven’t thought about it yet.” 

They walked for a while just listening to their friends talking.

“What do you think of all this?” Damien asked, gesturing to the street as they walked. 

Shayne took a look around as they passed by an orange-lit alley. He looked at the people sitting under umbrellas at restaurants, he looked at their faces as the lights from the cars lit them up and slid on.

“It’s perfect.”

“Are you from Virginia?”

“Yeah, I grew up not too far away,” Shayne turned to look at him, “Did you say you were from Georgia? This must feel really different.”

Damien shook his head, smiling, “Nah, not really. I was a military brat, so moving around is second nature. I was raised in Georgia, but I was born in Germany.”

“Why Germany?”

“My dad was in command of reserve officers stationed overseas,” Damien laughed, “Although honestly, I don’t know much about it myself. He was never able to tell me much about what exactly he did.”

“That’s too bad, it sounds really cool,”

“Alright, Team Awesome,” Lasercorn turned to face the group as they turned down a colonnade, “I saved the best for last,” He sprinted away from the group, up a set of stairs. Pam, Joven, and Kate followed, so it was just the freshmen left.

“Oh no,” Courtney mocked dramatically, “Is anyone else scared?”

“I don’t know about this you guys,” Boze began, “….but I’m only gonna say this once…. YOLO.” She ran after the group.

The others shrugged and decided to run as well- and when they broke out of the colonnade, Shayne couldn’t help but look up. The treeline surrounding a long stretch of field was broken up by a whole sky full of stars. He paused and just tried to take it all in.

After a minute, he could feel someone beside him.

“Shayne,” Shayne’s focused shifted to what he could make out of Damien’s face. His body was backlit form a building behind him, so he could only barely trace the line of a smile with his eyes, “I think I see the others.”

Shayne nodded, and they walked over to the steps of a big, domed building. Surprisingly, the group was completely silent. Everyone was lying on their back, looking up.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Damien turned his focus to the sky.

“Shh,” Boze whispered, “Check this out.”

The boys caught on, and got on the ground, lying facing the treeline.

Shayne saw above him the ground, a yellow-green because of the old lights behind them. But the stars-

“It’s like a river of stars,” Shayne whispered. 

And the sat, silent, and Shayne barely noticed everyone else decided to go to the party until they asked him if he wanted to come along.

“We’ll stick around a bit longer,” he heard Damien say, “See y’all at the party,”

He could tell Damien was tired by the way his voice sounded gravelly like he barely had the energy to speak.

Shayne looked back the stars, taking in the feeling like the sky was below him.

Shayne caught Damien looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He shifted so slowly, as if moving at all would scare them both out of the moment they were in. Damien had on a big, toothy smile, his mouth parted just enough that it looked like he was about to laugh. 

When they locked eyes, Damien’s smile closed, just as cautiously as Shayne moved. They both knew how delicate they needed to be. _For a second, just no noise. Just this._

Shayne shifted onto his side so he was facing Damien. For a second, his brain turned on and told him about how little he knew Damien, about how they just met and it was the first week of school and how they might not speak to each other after tomorrow morning and forget each other’s names in a month. _I don’t want it to happen like that._

But Shayne didn’t want this to end.

Shayne caught the river above him, shining pale yellow all over the world, giving off just enough light to make a sparkle in Damien’s eye.

Damien chuckled. “What are you thinking about?”

Shayne smiled. “How amazing this whole night has been. I don’t want it to be over.”

“You know, a normal person would have said something like ‘nothing’, or said something like, ‘I’m thinking about kissing you’. Something cheesy. That’s what I would have said.”

“I’m honest,” Shayne whispered.

“You’re smart.”

“Do you really want to kiss me?”

“Is that too much? We don’t have to.”

“No, no- I would love that.”

“Okay.”

Then yellow. _Yellow everywhere._


	7. Call On Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 225 Days until Graudation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from a Litany song, check out their song Bedroom, it gives out strong Shaymien vibes.

Damien’s eyelids were heavy as he let out another yawn. He checked his watch in the dim lighting of the club only to see it was only just past midnight. There was no way Boze was going to want to go back this early. He wished he hadn’t offered to DD for her, but he promised he’d go out with her to this new dance club she found downtown. The place was small and dimly lit, crowded with tables and people and in the corner a jazz band was playing hit songs from decades ago. Even though it was downtown on a Friday night, the patrons of the club were almost exclusively in their late 50’s to early 70’s, Damien decided, and he and his friends looked a bit out of place. They got here early to snag a table in the opposite corner, away from the band, but it still wasn’t enough space for Damien to hear himself think. 

Boze had wanted to go all-out for the experience, and she convinced Damien to show up dressed to the 9’s- black dress pants and a blue button-up shirt with a bow tie. She invited all of their friends to come join them, and others came in varying states of fancy dress. Shayne, in particular, had cleaned up. He was wearing a white buttoned shirt with a dark navy vest on top and combed hair off to the side.

At least, his hair was combed, because as Damien looked across the room to the band and dance floor area, Shayne and Boze were swinging and jamming to whatever the drummer was playing, and Damien could see the two of them were lost to the world. Soon, the song ended, and the saxophone crooner spoke into the microphone.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” he said, voice raspy and breathless, “We love the oldies, so we’re gonna give y’all one for the books,”

And immediately the band launched into a rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, with a female vocalist. Damien’s eyes were drawn from Boze and Sayne when he noticed someone approaching the table.

“Hey,” Joven said, taking the chair across from Damien “I had trouble finding you guys, sorry I’m late,”

“No worries man, glad you could make it,”

Joven looked around. “Has anyone else shown up yet?”

Damien gestured to the band area, “Shayne came with Matt and Sarah earlier, and he’s dancing with Boze over there. I haven’t seen the others in a while so I guessed they went home,”

“Gotcha,” Joven nodded his head. He turned back to Damien, his eyes narrowed.

“How are you two doing?” he asked. Damien looked at Joven and then back over to where Shayne and Boze were dancing, not really thinking about anything.

“I don’t know, honestly,” It was late on a Friday and Damien felt lonely, he wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

“He apologized a while ago, but I don’t know what I want to do with that. The ball is in my court, but I don’t know how long he’ll wait for me to decide.”

Joven nodded and stayed quiet for a while. Both of them turned to look at their friends across the room.

“I don’t know Shayne very well,” Joven said, eyes still across the room, “But you do. If you think he might wait, you have to trust that. And you deserve the extra time,”

They stayed quiet for a little while before Damien spoke again, “Thanks man,”

Joven turned his head and gave him a little smile, “Don’t thank me,” then, “Come on, let’s talk about something less heavy, it’s a Friday, let’s have a little fun,”

“How was the movie you took Kate to?” Damien smiled, suddenly he had a bit more energy.

“The rom-com musical bullshit?” Joven rolled his eyes, “It was awful, at the end of it we both wanted to get those two hours back,”

They kept talking for a little while, Damien was still yawning, but he had forgotten how much he enjoyed Joven’s company. Joven was skilled at giving good advice when he needed to, and then avoiding serious topics completely and just shooting the shit. Damien appreciated both right.

As he and Joven caught up, a woman in a bright white dress stumbled towards the table.

“Hey, sorry to bother you boys,” she said, a glass of something in her left hand, the other one resting suddenly on Damien’s bicep, “But I you look just like my son, Collin,”

“Your son is calling?” Joven asked, visibly a bit put off from the situation, his eyes shooting between the woman and Damien.

“No, my son, _Collin_ ,” the woman, smiling brightly responded, before shifting her grip on Damien’s arm so it was resting more on his shoulder. Damien could smell bourbon on her breath. He immediately remembered why he never went out drinking around strangers. He was uncomfortable, but his anxiety was keeping him from saying anything. The situation, in his mind, hadn’t gotten to the point where he needed to do anything.

“What are you all doing here tonight?” The woman asked, still smiling brightly.

“We’re out with some friends, just hanging out,” Joven replied, turning to face the woman directly, putting on a smile and his best face.

“And what about you, handsome?” She turned to Damien now, who kept his eyes on the patterns of the wood table.

“Just here for the music,” he said, loud enough so she wouldn’t ask again.

“Well my name is Teresa,” she said, beginning to trail her hand further down Damien’s back.

“Damien! We were looking for you man!” 

Shayne suddenly appeared to the woman’s left- smile big and bright and inconspicuous. He looked to his right and Boze had snaked her way behind him without being noticed, and had linked her arm with his.

Boze snuggled up against him and laughed, “Yeah! Come dance with us, you too Jovie!”

Teresa looked a bit angry, but her hand dropped off of Damien’s arm and he let out a breath of relief.

“Well you all have a good night then, hope to see you soon,” Damien looked up at the last second to catch a wink from her before she left.

As soon as she turned around, Shayne closed the distance and spoke into Damien’s ear just loud enough for their table to hear.

“You okay, man?”

Damien felt Boze loosen her grip on his arm and he closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

“Yeah I think I’m all good,” he opened his eyes and looked at his friends, “Thanks, guys. I really appreciated that.”

Boze crossed her arms and “We heard that lady talking to her friends a couple minutes ago saying she was gonna go talk to that ‘young stud’ in the corner,” she fisted her palms, “If I had known that was you, I would have let her know that she wasn’t gonna lay a finger on my boy, uh-uh,”

Her gaze softened, “Are you good, dude?”

Damien nodded, “Could somebody get me a water?”

“I’ve got it,” Joven said, standing and moving to the crowded bar.

Shayne nudged Damien’s arm. “Hey,” he said. Damien turned to see Shayne’s real smile, “Let’s all go dance a little,”

Damien smiled weakly and nodded, letting Shayne and Boze flank him on either side until they got to the dance floor.

It was at that moment Damien remembered he couldn’t dance. But he looked at Shayne and Boze, who moved like no one but themselves, and he let himself go a little bit, and tried to loosen up his body.

After a little while he stopped caring about anything else but his friends, and by the time the song was over he could feel himself smiling ear to ear. Shayne and Boze led the way back to the table, where Joven was sitting with a glass of ice water.

“For you, buddy,” he said, sliding it smoothly across the table…

...Where it tipped over and spilled over onto Boze’s shoes.

“JOVEN,” Boze shouted, and Damien could feel people turning to look at their table, “Dude you did NOT just,”

Joven began babbling incoherently, and Boze started to talk over him, and Damien thought they kind of looked like siblings. He noticed Shayne chuckling beside him, his face turning red. Damien let out a laugh of his own. 

“Gosh,” he said after Joven grabbed Boze some napkins, “You two argue like an old married couple,”

“Alright y’all,” Boze announced, “Your boys about ready to head back home. Damien, you ready dude?”

He pulled his keys out of his pocket, “Good to go,”

“Dope, let me pay my tab and we’ll head out,”

“Don’t sweat it,” Joven said, flashing Boze’s credit card and handing it to her, “I got you. Told them to put it on mine.”

Boze looked taken aback, “Joven, oh my gosh,” she laughed, “And you just let me yell at you like that? Damn dude you’re a good friend,”

“Eh it’s nothing, perks of having a real person job.”

The group ended up leaving a couple minutes later, and walked on the cobbled downtown street, looking out of place next to all kinds of people, skaters, patrons of restaurants, drunk peoples. Damien shifted his bow tie uncomfortably.

“You look great,” Damien heard Shayne say. Right next to him, Shayne was gazing at him softly, with a small smile on his lips.

“Thanks,” Damien blushed. It was a good night after all.

“Aww,” Joven said, butting in, “I wish I had something like you two,”

Damien smiled and looked at Joven, “Don’t worry bud, you’ll find someone someday,”

It wasn’t any kind of liquid courage that gave him the balls to say it, but when he looked at Shayne’s reaction he knew it was worth it. Big, blue eyes were locked onto his, and Damien could feel the night shrink around him until it was just Shayne. The had a lot of work to do, _but this was worth it_ , he decided. _This is really worth it_.


	8. Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1096 days until Graduation

Damien loved having his car, even though it technically wasn’t allowed for first years.

He thought fall was the most romantic time of the year, and he was trying to show Shayne all of the most beautiful things he could fins. They went to look at the views in the Shenandoah a couple weeks ago and had gone pumpkin picking with Boze and Joven a few days ago after class. Damien’s Chevy took them all around the Charlottesville area, and while it didn’t have a good speaker system, or even an aux cord, Damien’s portable speaker worked just as well. It felt quaint.

Currently, Damien’s SUV was riding down the mountain from their hike to see the sunrise. Damien took a look at the clock- it was almost 7am on a Thursday. They left at 4am so they could catch the sun just as it came up. Damien was sleepy, but Shayne had fallen asleep in the passenger seat. He had a test coming up in his 10am English class, and needed all the sleep he could get.

Turning back to the road, Damien heard the opening notes of his favorite song, “500 Miles” by Peter, Paul and Mary. It was more than that to get back to Georgia, and Damien was beginning to feel homesick. He hadn’t told Shayne, but he was going to be gone for most of their winter break so he could get in some time with his family before summer came. They’d only been together for a couple of months, but it still felt like they had something special. Damien smiled at the dark, open road in front of him and let the song play as he rolled along.  
*. *. *.

 

He pulled into a McDonalds when they got back to town, and as the car turned off, Damien looked over at Shayne’s sleeping face. His mouth hanging open just a bit, his hair thin and loose hanging over his forehead, the traces of a beard along his unshaven face. Damien took out the keys. He didn’t have the heart to wake Shayne up, so he got their food alone and came back out to the car.

He took the long way home, and when he pulled into his parking space he finally reached over to shake Shayne awake.

“Hey,” he whispered, his voice breaking, “Hey buddy, we’re home,”

Shayne’s breathing stuttered before his eyes opened, heavily.

“Oh, good morning,” Damien laughed, “There’s some food if you want some. We have time, we don’t have to rush back,”

Shayne checked the clock briefly but grabbed for the paper bag anyways.

“Thanks, Dames,” he pulled out a sandwich and bit in. Talking over his food he asked, “What are we listening to?”

“Simon and Garfunkel,”

“I like it,” and then they were both quiet for a while.

Damien began to sing along, “ _Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile_ ,”

It was nice, just sitting together.

“Are you going to the party tonight?” Shayne asked, “In Sohinki and Anthony’s room? Boze and Courtney said they were going.”

Damien looked over to Shayne. This wasn’t the first time he’d asked to go to a party together. Damien wasn’t a fan of parties.

“I don’t know, it’s a Thursday,” he apologized,” I have class early on Fridays, I might not be able to go,”

“Okay,” Shayne said, “I get it, I just wanted to hang out with you a little more,”

“Plus, sometimes people think you don’t want to hang out with them, since you say no every time they ask to go out,”

Damien sighed. “They’re awesome people, and they’re my friends, but drinking on a Thursday night isn’t exactly my idea of fun,”

Shayne raised his hands in defense “You don’t have to tell me, I totally get it,” Shayne leaned in towards Damien and grabbed his hand, “I’m not angry or anything about it, I promise it was just an invitation,”

Damien took a second to breathe and shot Shayne a grateful smile. He remembered how lucky he was to have a boyfriend that understood how much he hated arguments, how much anticipating them made his anxiety flare. 

“Thank you,” he said after a minute, “What time does it start? I can go, at least for a little while,”

The smile that blew up on Shayne’s face made Damien reconsider how much he disliked parties.

*. *. *.

 

But the party itself sure didn’t. It was a freaking Thursday, how could this many people have enough free time to come to a literal, actual party? Damien lost Shayne a little while ago- he had done shots with Courtney before running into Anthony’s room with some of their friends. Damien waited around for him to come back out, but Boze saw him standing around and invited him to come to Sohinki’s room to play Mario Kart.

So, he was with Lasercorn, Sohinki, Mari, Boze, and Joven, and some kid with white hair who seemed nice, and he was actually feeling kind of at ease. Some of them were drinking, but the group as a whole was much more chill. Plus, Boze was really chill.

“LASERCORN,” Boze shouted, shocking Damien out of his thoughts, “Dude! Did you just blue shell me?! I thought we were friends,”

“No friends in war,” Lasercorn actually _sneered_ , “Only enemies,”

“Lasercorn, we just made an alliance!” the guy with the white hair shouted.

“Yeah, an enemy alliance,”

As that round ended, the crew rotated controllers, Letting Joven in to the far left, and Boze got up from the sofa on the far right and went to sit on the edge of Sohinki’s bed. Damien hopped onto the space Joven left on Sohinki’s bed and started thinking about how loud the game was.

“Boze,” he said, “ _Boze_ ,” a bit louder, until she turned around, “Who’s the RA for this building?”

Boze shrugged, but Mari spoke up.

“She’s currently kicking Joven’s ass on the first lap,” “Hey!”

Damien raised his eyebrows, “You’re the RA? I thought you were the Liaison?” 

“She’s both,” Sohinki said, eyes focused on the screen, “Mari’s a beast, man,”

“Doesn’t that compete with your responsibilities of being a Liaison?” Damien asked, “Like, giving alcohol to minors?”

He tried to keep his tone light, but it still had a serious note to it. He wanted to trust these people, but not if they were careless.

“That’s not through us, dude,” Mari replied, “We’re just members of the community here,”

“Yeah,” Lasercorn added, “Plus, since we’re at the party, we can make sure nothing bad happens. It’s like having boots on the ground,”

Damien felt a bit more relieved and felt bad about not trusting his new friends.

“That makes sense,” he said, “I get it now,”

“Speaking of, Lasercorn, it’s your turn to go walk through the party,” Sohinki shoved Lasercorn, prompting a stream of expletives as he got up to leave.

“You’re a cheater, and a liar, Sohinki,” Lasercorn growled, “Damien, take my spot and pummel these fools,”

Damien laughed, “You got it, boss,”

He could definitely get used to this.

*. *. *.

Time passed. Damien yawned once, and turned to see if Boze wanted to leave with him, but he saw she’d fallen asleep on the couch in spite of the noise from the game and the music in the other room.

He moved to shake her, but as he did, Mari came back in the room from her turn walking through the party.

“Hey Damien,” she said, “Cn you get out here? Shayne’s pretty drunk, and I need someone to take him home,”

Damien sighed, and got off the couch, “Yeah I got it, thanks for letting us hang out, Sohinki,”

“Anytime man,”

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow,”

“Wait, what about Boze?” Joven asked.

“I gotta go get Shayne, I can’t carry her home,”

“I’ll get her back,” Mari sighed, “Hey Wes?”

The white-haired guy got up off of the couch and reached under Boze, easily lifting her.

“Thanks bud,” Mari said, and then the three of them left the room. Damien followed behind them, looking around for wherever Shayne could be.

But it didn’t take Damien very long- Shayne had one arm around a guy with a short beard and glasses, red and obviously drunk, laughing at something the guy had said.

Damien had a sudden jolt of jealousy shoot through him, but he let it pass. _Trust him_.

He walked over to the two of them, and Shayne caught his eye.

“Dames!” Shayne slurred, “You’ve gotta meet Ian! He’s the coolest dude, and kinda the undeclared leader of the dorm!”

“Damien gave the guy a tired, tight smile, and introduced himself.

“Hey man, I’m Damien,” he reached out a hand, since the other guy didn’t seem nearly as drunk as Shayne.

“Hey man,” Ian had a higher voice than he was expecting, “Nice to finally meet you! Shayne hasn’t shut up about you all night,”

The Shayne in question was currently hanging onto Damien’s neck, singing along to the Halsey song coming from the dancing room.

“Yeah, he’s great, ain’t he?”

“Where have you been all night, man?” Ian put a hand on his shoulder, “I don’t think we’ve ever spoken, yeah?”

“No, I’ve seen you around though,”

“You should get him back to his room, I’ll talk to you soon,”

Ian patted Damien on the back as he went back to Anthony’s room. Damien looked around the party- there weren’t nearly as many people here as he remembered. Some people had paired up and were making out on the walls. Damien was very ready to leave.

“Thanks for coming and getting me, Dames,” Shayne said, a little to loud, next to his ear.

“Yeah of course, let’s get you home,” Damien awkwardly shuffled Shayne out of the party suite. The florescent white of the hallway was shocking to Damien, who had been in a dim room staring at a screen for the past few hours. The quiet shocked him as well- the party was barely a murmur, no wonder they never got in trouble for throwing parties in the dorm. 

As Damien made towards Shayne’s room, he felt something brush against his neck, and he realized Shayne was kissing his neck. It tickled, and it felt nice almost, but Damien didn’t want to give him any false hope.

“Hey there tiger,” he whispered, “Not tonight, I think you drank a little too much for ny of that,”

“Aww,” Shayne said, loud in the echoing of the hallway, “But you look so hot,”

As the got to his staircase, Damien moved one arm to Shayne’s hip to stabilize him, and Shayne moaned.

Damien could feel himself get hot under the collar. Shayne really was a beautiful drunk- he was warm and his hair was perfectly messy, and his eyes fluttering heavily with fatigue.

Finally, they got to his room, and as Shayne fumbled with the key, Damien started to worry about his boyfriend.

“Hey Shayne,” he whispered, “What time is your exam tomorrow, again?”

“Uhh, like 10 I think?” Shayne slurred, falling into the door.

“Hey, are you okay?” Damien asked, “Here, I’ll get the door,”

“Oh what a gentleman,” Shayne said, putting his hands on Damien’s waist from behind, “Let’s have some fun tonight, Dames, you’re so hot,”

Damien shushed him as he opened the door to Shayne’s roommate’s room, and tried to tiptoe in, but behind him, Shayne let the door slam shut, and almost kicked the guy’s trashcan over on his way through to get to his own room. Thankfully he stayed asleep.

As they got into Shayne’s room, Shayne flopped face-first onto his bed.

Damien took a second to look at him before shifting into autopilot, grabbing a plastic cup for some sink water, and he pulled some ibuprofen out of Shayne’s desk drawer, placing them on the desk across the room from the bed and he wrote a note: “ _Thought you’d need this. Good luck on your test big guy :)_. 

Damien then turned towards the bed and began untying Shayne’s shoes, then removing his socks and jacket. He found an extra blanket in the closet and was able to coax the barely-awake Shayne to turn onto his side and promise not to turn back over. 

He took a second before he got up to tuck Shayne in, and after looking at his face in the ugly fluorescence of the light, flicked the switch. His eyes adjusted and he stared for a second at Shayne in the dim light coming from the window. As he turned to leave, he heard, in a whisper.

“Thanks, Damien…. You’re the best,”

He smiled and walked back to his room with heavy eyes, but his feet felt light.


End file.
